The Loaded Dog: Pay packets of politicians

This week's topic for The Sun-Herald's weekly column The Loaded Dog is:

Federal MPs are about to pull stumps for the Christmas break, and quite a break it is - Parliament won't sit again until the first week of February. Does this go to show that they're being paid far too much to do far too little? Or does this give them time to get back to their electorates and work for the people who voted for them? In short, are we getting value for money from our representatives?